Call Spirits in Your Past **Book Two**

Chapter 58 (also Tuesday)

Kwayo winced, Ana and Teremki's thoughts disappearing behind the ghost town's barriers. But then Dryda's presence flickered and he stumbled to a halt. "She's going to Verspri," he said, shifting to a gazelle and sprinting the other way.

"What?!" Zillie cried out.

"Just hurry up and follow him," Manuel said.

Kwayo silently thanked him, still running. Did you find Treble and Vizz and everyone else yet? He asked Verspri.

Sort of. We found a really big teleporter near the room we left. And the guards hiding in the classroom were helpful enough to say that they all jumped into it. We just can't get inside.

Kwayo barrelled around a corner and nearly ran into Razón, crouched behind a barricade of cracked bricks.

"Gazelle!" Razón shouted, and Kwayo slammed into the rudimentary barricade. They toppled to the ground.

"Kwayo!" Isaac cried. "What are you doing here?"

He shifted to a human among the scattered bricks, breathing heavily before replying. He tried pinpointing Dryda, easily finding Verspri--mentally and visibly--a few feet away. "How is Dryda in there?"

Isaac stared between him and the portal, confused. Then he pushed his arms forward and a funnel of wind blew a pair of billowing, dark threads back into the teleporter that consumed almost the entire width of the hallway.

"Dryda's in there too?" Verspri asked. He hesitated, then darted from the opposite wall, sliding to a crouch next to Kwayo. "How can you tell?"

Like this. It only started recently, but I can kind of sense where all of you are.

Verspri snorted. "Good for you."

Manuel, Zillie and Bella ran into the hallway behind them, and Kwayo studied the teleporter. "I have a plan. Not really. But I think we can get into the portal."

"Well, I think I have a better plan," Razón said. "No offense."

Tago and Rielle appeared behind the others, and Kwayo sighed in relief, halfway nodding to Razón.

"Those ribbons only come at us from the ground," Razón pointed. "Even when Isaac pushes them back, they stay down there. So we just need to get in from the ceiling."

"On it," Manuel said. Carapace spikes grew from his wrists, and he threw them into the ceiling, forming handholds.

A loud noise wrenched above them, and pipes broke out from the ceiling. Rielle grinned at Manuel, who silently threw another pair of spikes closest to the portal.

"Everybody up!" Tara called, stretching out and reaching for the first handholds.

"And hurry, please!" Isaac said, wind-funneling a whole bunch of knotted, billowing ribbons back to the portal.

Kwayo shapeshifted to a ruby-throated hummingbird and darted into the air, speeding past Kessa dangling from the ceiling pipes. Dryda? Are you there? We're coming.

He flew through the teleporter and nearly crashed into a wide, metal barricade. Not quite a wall, more like a tall barrier, one in a row of dozens. The sound of somebody screaming echoed against them.

He darted around the side of the barricade and glimpsed a massive, billowing form--like a ghost made of charcoal-stained cloth--hovering above a massive, circular room. And standing in a single circle, bare of any billowing ribbons, stood Ripple. Kwayo fluttered back and forth, torn between flying after Ripple, or Dryda.

Kwayo, I don't think you want to be here, Dryda sent frantically.

He scanned the ground. Right. Nobody else could fly over the inky ribbons crawling over the floor. I have to help everyone else, he sent. What are you doing?